HCM City: Thousands walk for AO victims, people with disabilities

More than 5,000 people participate in a fundraising walk for Agent Organge (AO)/Dioxin victims and impoverished people with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City on August 10.

The walk formed part of a month-long campaign launched by the VNRC in support of AO victims and the disabled that began on August 5. The event has been annually held for 13 consecutive years, conveying the message “Do Not Forget Them,” to raise funds for better care of these people.

Speaking at the event, chairman of the HCM City Red Cross Society Tran Truong Son said the city is currently home to close to 4,700 veterans directly exposed to Agent Orange during the war and 688 children of these victims alongside more than 56,600 people with disabilities.

In recent years, the HCM City Red Cross has provided various support for these people in terms of healthcare, education, legal assistance, soft loan provision, house repair, scholarship and more to help them have a better life, Son said.

Many AO victims and disabled people still struggle to make ends meet every day so they need sharing and support from the society, he added.

Last year the HCM City Red Cross has spent more than 1 billion VND (44,000 USD) on presenting gift packages, wheel chairs and breeding cows and helping repair houses for over 2,000 AO victims.

On the same day, about 400 AO victims received free medical checkups and medicines in Thuong Kiem commune, Kim Son district, the northern province of Ninh Binh during a charity event to mark the Day for AO/Dioxin Victims (August 10) and the 58th year of the Agent Orange Disaster (August 10, 1961).

The event was joined by 40 doctors and nurses from the Hanoi-based Vietnam – Germany Hospital.